Evelyn Waugh (Waaawwww!) (1 Viewer)

[Psychotic no 2]

I've been very slowly working my way through a collection of Evelyn Waugh novels...and I love them. They've got that nice Gatsby-esque 20s style of cold, cold hearts and insane stories, which always happen when your characters are very rich people.
Anyway, I just finished reading A Handful Of Dust and I'm devastated. Such a book! Anyone else like him/know him?

 

[Pantone247]

I've been very slowly working my way through a collection of Evelyn Waugh novels...and I love them. They've got that nice Gatsby-esque 20s style of cold, cold hearts and insane stories, which always happen when your characters are very rich people.
Anyway, I just finished reading A Handful Of Dust and I'm devastated. Such a book! Anyone else like him/know him?

One of the funniest things is in The Secret Diary of Adrain Mole is when he mentions, as a total aside to his pursuit for recognition of his intellect by Radio 4, how he only just learned Evelyn Waugh was a man.

Sorry always think of that when I see his name...

 

[Latex lizzie]

I've been very slowly working my way through a collection of Evelyn Waugh novels...and I love them. They've got that nice Gatsby-esque 20s style of cold, cold hearts and insane stories, which always happen when your characters are very rich people.
Anyway, I just finished reading A Handful Of Dust and I'm devastated. Such a book! Anyone else like him/know him?

talk to me baby..one of my favorite authors ever..I have loads of his stuff at home if you want.His travel books are the best.."when the going was good" and "put out more flags" being two good ones.He has a book about a funeral parlor in the states which is very funny indeed.I have it but cant remember the title.

 

[Psychotic no 2]

talk to me baby..one of my favorite authors ever..I have loads of his stuff at home if you want.His travel books are the best.."when the going was good" and "put out more flags" being two good ones.He has a book about a funeral parlor in the states which is very funny indeed.I have it but cant remember the title.

Deadly! I've three more to get through - Decline and Fall, Scoop and Vile Bodies - so I'll be pillaging your collection after that. I have to say though, A Handful of Dust, every time I think about it, I just feel very upset. Stunning.

 

[Latex lizzie]

vile bodies is amu hazing.

 

[Psychotic no 2]

vile bodies is amu hazing.

Yay! It's good to know there's better to come, considering what I've just read is so great. I just bought a nice 70s edition of Graham Greene's A Burnt Out Case - read that? Any good? The name just appealed to me for some reason

 

[spiritualtramp]

One of the funniest things is in The Secret Diary of Adrain Mole is when he mentions, as a total aside to his pursuit for recognition of his intellect by Radio 4, how he only just learned Evelyn Waugh was a man.

Sorry always think of that when I see his name...

ha ha , I was just about to say the exact same thing .

I know all the Adrian Mole books backwards .

 

[nlgbbbblth]

ha ha , I was just about to say the exact same thing .

I know all the Adrian Mole books backwards .

they are great - time and time again I've gone back to them
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole has to be funniest.|..|

 

[nlgbbbblth]

Anyway, I just finished reading A Handful Of Dust and I'm devastated. Such a book! Anyone else like him/know him?

it was on the LC Modern Novels - read it about 15 years ago and thought it was excellent. Never read anything else by him though

 

[One of us]

A Handful of Dust is just astonishing. Although anything the man wrote is quality, that book is in a class of its own. Its the only book I've read that can be cold and cruel and funny, and yet utterly wrenching at the same time.

Handful of Dust is about as abrasive, Scoop is a lot gentler, but very funny. Didn't like Vile Bodies as much- you can tell he was writing it in a hurry, to make a bit of dosh. But they're all well worth reading.

At the risk of sounding like a shelf tag in Waterstones, if you like those, you'd probably like the books Nabokov was writing in Berlin about that time; they have the same polished style and really cruel black humour. "King, Queen, Knave," "Laughter in the Dark" and "Despair" are the ones to look out for.

 

[Psychotic no 2]

Great, I'm thinking after reading A Burnt Out Case a book called Despair is just the kind of thing I need to be reading...I've only read short stories by Nabokov but I liked him loads. Must pick up those books too, thankee.

Jaysis, Bubblebath, the Leaving Cert was obviously much better in your day.

 

[Jimmy Magee]

One of the funniest things is in The Secret Diary of Adrain Mole is when he mentions, as a total aside to his pursuit for recognition of his intellect by Radio 4, how he only just learned Evelyn Waugh was a man.

Sorry always think of that when I see his name...

Jaysis, I'm only learning this now meself <cough>

 

[Pantone247]

ha ha , I was just about to say the exact same thing .

I know all the Adrian Mole books backwards .

they are great - time and time again I've gone back to them
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole has to be funniest.|..|

They get better and better, you pick up on new stuff everytime you read them... the parents marriage collapse, Adrians total intellectual snobbery to his peers, the faux lefty snobbery of Pam's family... even as time goes by and we get a bit more perspective on the shit hole that was Thatchers Surban England they become more and more amazing.

Except for the Capucino years, which I thought was written a bit too much like a TV sitcom. But the first two anyhow are proper brilliant.

Sorry for interrupting the Waugh thread, I've never read any of her books

 

[spiritualtramp]

I've only read short stories by Nabokov but I liked him loads. Must pick up those books too, thankee.

both Despair and Laughter In The Dark are deadly .

in fact , nearly everything by Nabokov is . I wasn't very impressed by his short stories , his novels are way better .

 

[spiritualtramp]

even as time goes by and we get a bit more perspective on the shit hole that was Thatchers Surban England they become more and more amazing.

thats exactly why she wrote it .

y'know when Adrian is in the social security office with his mother and his mother asks the clerk for a loan ? that actually happened to Sue Townsend . then she had to walk miles home as she had no bus fare .

she was a very impoverished single mother and she just sat down one day and wrote the first book .

Except for the Capucino years, which I thought was written a bit too much like a TV sitcom. But the first two anyhow are proper brilliant.

I quite liked the Cappucino years .

have you read any other stuff by Sue Townsend ? The Queen and I is pretty good . Rebuilding Coventry I did not like much .

I picked up a copy of some collected writing stuff of Sue Townsend last week , it is a collection of 100 or so articles she wrote for some supermarket magazine . I haven't read it yet but I flicked through it and it seems to be amusing light heartedness .